Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based Managing Partner operating in the SaaS space. If you think a Managing Partner is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Donatella Callegaris
Managing Partner of Flashpoint
Donatella joined Columbia Lake Partners in 2014. She is involved in the entire deal life cycle including assessing, evaluating and post investment monitoring. Donatella is focused particularly on CLP relationships with the equity sponsors ecosystem and on identifying high growth technology companies in need of growth financing that best suits CLP’s investment criteria. Prior to joining CLP, Donatella spent seven years working at Kreos Capital, managing several aspects of the investment process on a pre-term sheet and post-term sheet basis as well as managing the portfolio for technology and life science companies based in the UK, continental Europe and Israel. Donatella also managed various levels of the fund corporate governance for Kreos II, Kreos III and Kreos IV funds. Prior to this, Donatella worked in trust management. She holds a degree in Business Management from Birkbeck College, University of London and speaks both Italian and English.
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About Flashpoint: Flashpoint is an international asset management firm investing in tech businesses.
Mads Jensen
Founder & Managing Partner of SuperSeed Ventures
Mads is an avid technologist, experienced SaaS entrepreneur and skilled business operator with more than 20 years track record in building and growing technology businesses. His passion is to build great tech companies, and today he does this as investor in and mentor of great founding teams. Mads is technically hands-on, and his expertise includes disruptive innovation using AI and data. He is the author of multiple US patents.
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About SuperSeed Ventures: SuperSeed invests in seed stage B2B SaaS/AI companies and help them reach their first £1m in revenue
Bob Geiman
Managing Partner of Cava Capital
Bob joined the Cava team in 2010 and led our investment in Neuehouse, LLC. With over 15 years of experience, Bob is a proven operator and investor in mobile and new media. Bob is the Founder and President/CEO of EveryScreen Media, a mobile advertising technology and data company in New York City. In addition, Bob is Chairman of the Board of Roundbox, a leading provider of mobile video software and applications and a member of the Board of Directors of Paradigm Creatives, a Hyderabad, India -based software company that creates mobile and social applications and enabling technologies for smartphones and tablets. Bob serves on the Advisory Boards of HatchLabs, an entrepreneurial sandbox building advanced mobile products that is funded by IAC and Xtreme Labs; Keynetik, a provider of software infrastructure and applications to facilitate the delivery of sensor-enabled, environment and context aware applications for the mobile, healthcare, sports and gaming industries; Paneve, a software programmable, video processing company for mobile devices and tablets; Perky Jerky, a guerilla marketing company that sells specialty food products; and Spring Partners, a company that is building a mobile application called SpringPad. Bob was recently a member of the Board of Directors of Paratek, a wireless semiconductor company that was acquired by Research in Motion in March 2012. Bob is a founding member of First Growth Venture Network, an organization with the mission of identifying high potential technology entrepreneurs in New York City and supporting these entrepreneurs with resources and networks to succeed through a nine month boot camp
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About Cava Capital, DigiSure, Summit Partners: Organic Development Stage (Cava Studio) through Early Growth.
Mark Pearson
Managing Partner of Fuel Ventures
Mark is an award winning digital entrepreneur having achieved multiple successful exits over the last decade. Mark takes an active role in mentoring the Fund’s portfolio of companies.
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About Fuel Ventures, Groupola.com, HushHush, MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, MyVoucherCodes.co.uk: Fuel Ventures is a technology fund investing in marketplaces, fintech, platforms, and SaaS companies.
Ali Beklen
Founder and Managing Partner of HotelRunner
After working for several financial institutions and IBM, Ali Beklen co-founded HotelRunner with Arden Agopyan, with the ambition of converting the long-tail accommodation sales and distribution management from offline to online at global scale. For the last 10 years, he has been advising many organizations and initiatives focusing on digital transformation of the travel industry globally. He has publications in international refereed journals and conferences about service and cloud computing. He is Advisory Chair for Software Service Computation at the International Academy, Research and Industry Association. Beklen holds an M.Sc. in Computer Engineering and a B.A. in Economics. He is also a PhD candidate in computer engineering.
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About HotelRunner: SaaS enabled B2B network for accommodations and travel agencies to find, contract, connect, and transact with each other online.
Arden Agopyan
Founder and Managing Partner of HotelRunner
Arden Agopyan is an experienced entrepreneur and business development executive with a proven track record. Prior to founding HotelRunner, he led IBM’s Cloud Computing Software technical sales and market creation activities across Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, Middle East and Africa. His areas of expertise also include international team management, business execution, strategic marketing and financial management. As a talented hacker coming from software development background, along twenty years of business experience in technology, Arden is a Ph.D. candidate in Finance, holds a BSc in Computer Engineering degree and an MBA. Arden speaks five languages and is also Advisory Chair for Cloud Computing at International Academy, Research and Industry Association and co-author of a book, academic journals and articles.
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About HotelRunner: SaaS enabled B2B network for accommodations and travel agencies to find, contract, connect, and transact with each other online.
James Codling
Managing Partner of Volution
James has 14 years of Private Equity, Investment Banking and startup experience. He started his career at J.P. Morgan and moved to Montagu Private Equity in 2006. He held NED roles in a number of Montagu’s portfolio companies and was also responsible for all of Montagu’s financing activities between 2006 and 2011. James has successfully launched a number of startup businesses, including VentureFounders, and holds a MEng (hons) in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Birmingham.
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About VentureFounders, Volution: Volution backs ambitious Fintech and SaaS businesses, ready to accelerate their growth to Series B and beyond.
Mark Kukolus
Founder & Managing Partner of BICPM
Founder & Managing Partner
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About BICPM: Business Intelligence & Corporate Performance Management
